The game is afoot: A response to three insightful commentaries

This is an author response to commentaries on our original article (Wu, Sheppard & Mitchell, 2016). We abstract two main themes from the commentaries, and they are as follows: (1) What kind of clues in target behaviour allow perceivers to infer target EQ? And related with this, by what process do perceivers infer the target's EQ? (2) Do features of the target group naturally lead to a U‐shaped function, whereby it is easy for perceivers to identify those at the extremes but not those in the middle of the continuum?     

Is there a role of depressive symptoms in the fear-avoidance model? A structural equation approach

The fear-avoidance (FA) model has gained widespread acceptance as a conceptual framework for investigating psychological factors such as FA beliefs and avoidance behavior, which contribute to chronic back pain and reduced functioning. Depressive symptoms are supposed to be related to FA beliefs and to foster avoidance behavior. This study aims to investigate the multivariate assumptions of the FA model with a focus on the role of depressive symptoms. A total of N = 360 patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain at admission of inpatient orthopedic rehabilitation participated in the survey. Measures included a numeric pain rating scale, Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire, Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale, Hannover Functional Ability Questionnaire and Patient Health Questionnaire. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we construed a basic FA model and subsequently extended it by adding symptoms of depression as a covariate. The results of SEM indicated a good model fit for a basic FA model (χ²(263) = 431.069, p < .001, RMSEA = .042, CFI = .964, WRMR = .986). They confirmed the hypothesized relations and supported single mediations of the relationship between pain and functioning by FA beliefs and avoidance behavior. A second model including symptoms of depression as additional covariate (χ²(511) = 722.761, p < .001, RMSEA = .034, CFI = .956, WRMR = .949) showed a high impact of depressive symptoms on all FA model variables leading to a decrease of the FA mediations. The findings provide empirical support for the multivariate FA model and underline the importance of considering depressive symptoms in a multiple-target approach to understand the mechanisms of chronic pain.     

Validation of the Volunteer Motivation Scale and its relations with work climate and intention among Chinese volunteers

Grounded in self‐determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), this two‐phase research examines the reliability and validity of the Volunteer Motivation Scale with Chinese volunteers (VMS‐C) and its relationship with the supportive work climate and intention to continue being a volunteer. In Study 1, the initial item pool of the VMS‐C with 18 items measuring six motivation types was administrated to Chinese volunteers (N = 362). Factor analysis led to a five‐factor model with 15 items. This model was cross‐validated using confirmatory factor analysis. The five factors were intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation and amotivation. In Study 2, the relationships between different types of motivation (i.e. autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, amotivation) and two variables of interests, namely, supportive work climate and intention to stay, were investigated (N = 228). It was found that autonomous motivation (i.e. intrinsic motivation, identified regulation) were positively related to both supportive work climate and intention to stay. Controlled motivation (i.e. introjected regulation, external regulation) and amotivation were negatively associated with the two variables. The current findings are consistent with SDT. More studies guided by the theory in the volunteering area are recommended.     

Explanatory style differences in health literacy: a survey among young adults in Taiwan

Explanatory styles are related to individuals’ positive health management. Everyone interprets and thinks about issues differently; therefore, medical information is understood in different ways. This study explored the relationship of optimistic and positive views on health literacy. A survey method was used to collect information from 342 university students. This study used PLS2.0 and SPSS 18.0 for data analysis. The results indicated that optimists had more accurate self-reported health status and medication-taking and nutritional knowledge than pessimists did. Females had higher scores on health knowledge and medication-taking and nutritional knowledge than males. In addition, female optimists had better performance on self-reported health status and health and medication-taking knowledge than female pessimists did. The major contribution of this study is the confirmation of the effect of explanatory style on health literacy.     

A Note on the Identifiability of Fixed-Effect 3PL Models

In this note, we prove that the 3 parameter logistic model with fixed-effect abilities is identified only up to a linear transformation of the ability scale under mild regularity conditions, contrary to the claims in Theorem 2 of San Martín et al. (Psychometrika, 80(2):450–467, 2015a).     

Experts and Deviants: The Story of Agentive Control

This essay argues that current theories of action fail to explain agentive control because they have left out a psychological capacity central to control: attention. This makes it impossible to give a complete account of the mental antecedents that generate action. By investigating attention, and in particular the intention‐attention nexus, we can characterize the functional role of intention in an illuminating way, explicate agentive control so that we have a uniform explanation of basic cases of causal deviance in action as well as other defects of agency (distraction), explain cases of skilled agency and sharpen questions about the role of thought in agency. This provides for a different orientation in the theory of action.     

The Postsecular Turn in Education: Lessons from the Mindfulness Movement and the Revival of Confucian Academies

It is part of a global trend today that new relationships are being forged between religion and society, between spirituality and materiality, giving rise to announcements that we live in a ‘postsecular’ or ‘desecularized’ world. Taking up two educational movements, the mindfulness movement in the West and the revival of Confucian education in China, this paper examines what and how postsecular orientations and sensibilities penetrate educational discourses and practices in different cultural contexts. We compare the two movements to reveal a new quality of hybrid modernization in that they react, in different ways, to certain pathologies that are identified as consequences of secular modernity. Burnout syndrome, the sense of a spiritual void, but also the loss of a spiritual and cultural identity are being perceived as correlating to a one-sided push towards a modernity that emphasizes secular rationalization over mindfulness and Westernization over cultural particularity. The two case studies mark a critical insight on the present condition and limits of secularism and highlights the ongoing negotiations of values and modes of self-cultivation in schools. In an increasingly pluralistic world, the entanglement of the secular, spiritual, religious and wisdom traditions provides the opportunity to rethink education as a creative realm and an impossible possibility to re-engage the minds and lives of those in the hybrid pedagogical time.     

The importance of corporate and salesperson expertise and trust in building loyal business-to-business relationships in China

International relationships are critical to business success in this increasingly interdependent world. China is the world’s second largest economy and may soon overtake the United States in the near future. Thus, it becomes important for potential trading partners to understand how to effectively develop and maintain business relationships with this growing economic entity. In this study, we surveyed Chinese business people with purchasing responsibilities to better understand the dynamics of their business-to-business relationships. The data were empirically analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the interrelationship between perceptions of salesperson and corporate expertise, trust and loyalty. The results suggest that trust and expertise play key roles in developing long-term business-to-business associations in China. Managerial implications are discussed and avenues of future research are proposed.